• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.534-544
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• 2022

Medical ultrasound system has been widely used to visualize the lesion for diagnostics in most medical service site including hospitals and clinics thanks to its advantages such as real time operation, ease of use, safety. Among many signal processing blocks of the system, one of the most important part that governs the image quality is the beamformer, and technologies for this part has been continuously developed in long time. The synthetic aperture imaging method, that is one of the major technologies of beamforming, was introduced to maximize utilizing the information delivered from the patient's body through the probe, and contributed to breakthrough of the image quality since it was introduced in around 1990's, and evolved continuously in decades. This paper reviews and surveys the process of development of this technology and expects future evolution.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2022

This paper proposes an ultrasound vessel-pattern imaging algorithm with low computational complexity. The proposed imaging algorithm reconstructs blood-vessel patterns by only detecting blood flow, and can be applied to a real-time signal processing hardware that extracts an ultrasonic finger-vessel pattern. Unlike a blood-flow imaging mode of typical ultrasound medical imaging device, the proposed imaging algorithm only reconstructs a presence of blood flow as an image. That is, since the proposed algorithm does not use an I/Q demodulation and detects a presence of blood flow by accumulating an absolute value of the clutter-filter output, a structure of the algorithm is relatively simple. To verify a complexity of the proposed algorithm, a simulation model for finger vessel was implemented using Field-II program. Through the behavioral simulation, it was confirmed that the processing time of the proposed algorithm is around 54 times less than that of the typical color-flow mode. Considering the required main building blocks and the amount of computation, the proposed algorithm is simple to implement in hardware such as an FPGA and an ASIC.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.390-396
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• 2000

The dynamic elastic constants of the simulated weld HAZ (heat-affected zone) of SA 508 Class 3 reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel were investigated by resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS). The resonance frequencies of rectangular parallelepiped samples woe calculated from the initial estimates of elastic stiffness $c_{11},\;c_{12}\;and\;c_{44}$ with an assumption of isotropic property, dimension and density. Through the comparison of calculated resonant frequencies with the measured resonant frequencies by RUS, very accurate elastic constants of SA 508 Class 3 steel were determined by iteration and convergence processes. Clear differences of Youngs modulus and shear modulus were shown from samples with different thermal cycles and microstructures. Youngs modulus and shear modulus of samples with fine-grained bainite were higher than those with coarse-grained tempered martensite. This tendency was confirmed from other results such as micro-hardness test.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.264-270
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• 2012

This study was performed to compared the effectiveness of individual treatments (electrolyzed water: EW, organic acid, and ultrasound) and their combination on reducing foodborne pathogens from perilla leaves. Perilla leaves were innoculated with a cocktail of Salmonella Typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus. Inoculated perilla leaves were treated with EW combined with different concentration of acetic acid (0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%) for 1 min at room temperature. Treatment of 3 pathogens on perilla leaves with electrolyzed water combined with ultrasound (25 kHz) and 0.5% acetic acid was also performed for 1 min. While the numbers of S. Typhimurium and B. cereus showed reduced with increasing acetic acid concentration, there is no difference in the number of S. aureus treated with EW containing 0.5% to 1.5% acetic acid. Discoloration was observed the perilla leaves treated with EW combined with more than 1.0% acetic acid. For all three pathogens, the combined treatment of EW and ultrasound resulted in additional 0.42 to 0.72 $log_{10}$ CFU/g. The maxium reductions of S. Typhimurium and B. cereus were 0.95, 1.23 $log_{10}$ CFU/g after treatment with EW combined with 0.5% acetic acid and ultrasound simultaneously. The results suggest that the treatment of EW combined with 0.5% acetic acid and ultrasound increased pathogens reduction compared to individual treatment.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.1575-1580
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• 2018

Objective: This study was conducted to estimate the genetic parameters and breeding values of breast meat related traits of Pekin ducks. Selection response was also determined by using ultrasound breast muscle thickness (BMT) measurements in combination with bosom breadth (BB) and keel length (KL) values. Methods: The traits analyzed were breast meat weight (BMW), body weight (BW), breast meat percentage (BMP) and the three parameters of breast meat (BB, KL, and BMT). These measurements were derived from studying 15,781 Pekin ducks selected from 10 generations based on breast meat weight. Genetic parameters and breeding value were estimated for the analysis of the breeding process. Results: Estimated heritability of BMW and BMP were moderate (0.23 and 0.16, respectively), and heritability of BW was high (0.48). Other traits such as BB, KL, and BMT indicated moderate heritability ranging between 0.11 and 0.28. Significant phenotypic correlations of BMW with BW and BMP were discovered (p<0.05), and genetic correlations of BMW with BW and BMP were positive and high (0.83 and 0.66, respectively). It was noted that BMW had positive correlations with all the other traits. Generational average estimated breeding values of all traits increased substantially over the course of selection, which demonstrated that the ducks responded efficiently to increased breast meat yield after 10 generations of breeding. Conclusion: The results indicated that duck BMW had the potential to be increased through genetic selection with positive effects on BW and BMP. The ultrasound BMT, in combination with the measurement of BB and KL, is shown to be essential and effective in the process of high breast meat yield duck breeding.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.224-231
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• 2007

Polyurethane (PU) was prepared with the compositions of polytetramethylene glycol (PTMG) having two different molecular weight (250, 1000 g/mol). The optimum composition of PTMG 250/1000 was 60/40 based on the mechanical properties. PU/organoclay nanocomposites were prepared with several kinds of organoclay. The mechanical properties of nanocomposite prepared with 93A were considerable. The improvement in tensile strength and modulus for PU/organoclay nanocomposite with the application of ultrasound compared to the PU/organoclay nanocomposite without the application of ultrasound was factors of 1.2, and hardness (shore A type) increased from 90 to 95. The difference in thermal degradation was not observed. The results of transmission electron micrographs and X-ray measurements suggest that the intercalated organoclay in PU matrix was observed.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.205-212
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• 2014

Ultrasound technology can be applied in various fields including environmental, energy, and material engineering processes. In this study the effect of liquid height/volume on calorimetric energy and sonochemical oxidation was investigated as one of the basic steps for the design of water/wastereater treatment sonoreactors. The liquid height was increased from 0 to $4{\lambda}$ by $1/4{\lambda}$ and it was found that both calorimetric energy and sonochemical oxidation were significantly increased at relatively high liquid height/volume where the power density was relatively low. The sonochemiluminescence (SCL) images for the visualization of the activity of cavitation also showed that larger and more stable active zone was formed with high SCL intensity at high liquid height/volume. Therefore, it was revealed that sonoreactors for water/wasterwater treatment could be significantly effective in terms of removal efficiency and energy consumption.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.186-193
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• 2021

Background: While the formal test has been used to provide a quantitative measurement of core stability, studies have reported inconsistent results regarding its test-retest and intraobserver reliabilities. Furthermore, the validity of the formal test has never been established. Objects: This study aimed to establish the concurrent validity and test-retest reliability of the formal test. Methods: Twenty-two young adults with and without core instability (23.1 ± 2.0 years) were recruited. Concurrent validity was determined by comparing the muscle thickness changes of the external oblique, internal oblique, and transverse abdominal muscle to changes in core stability pressure during the formal test using ultrasound (US) imaging and pressure biofeedback, respectively. For the test-retest reliability, muscle thickness and pressure changes were repeatedly measured approximately 24 hours apart. Electromyography (EMG) was used to monitor trunk muscle activity during the formal test. Results: The Pearson's correlation analysis showed an excellent correlation between transverse abdominal thickness and pressure biofeedback unit (PBU) pressure as well as internal oblique thickness and PBU pressure, ranging from r = 0.856-0.980, p < 0.05. The test-retest reliability was good, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC1,2) = 0.876 for the core stability pressure measure and ICC1,2 = 0.939 to 0.989 for the abdominal muscle thickness measure. Conclusion: Our results provide clinical evidence that the formal test is valid and reliable, when concurrently incorporated into EMG and US measurements.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.1060-1066
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• 2007

When a high-energy ultrasound propagates through a solid body that contains a crack or a delamination, the two faces of the defect do not ordinarily vibrate in unison, and dissipative phenomena such as friction, rubbing and clapping between the faces will convert some of the vibrational energy to heat. By combining this heating effect with infrared imaging, one can detect a subsurface defect in material efficiently. In this paper a detection of the welding defect of thin SUS 304 plates using the UIR (ultrasonic infrared imaging) technology is described. A low frequency (20kHz) ultrasonic transducer was used to infuse the welded thin SUS 304 plates with a short pulse of sound for 280ms. The ultrasonic source has a maximum power of 2kW. The surface temperature of the area under inspection is imaged by a thermal infrared camera that is coupled to a fast frame grabber in a computer. The hot spots, which are a small area around the defect tip and heated up highly, are observed. From the sequence of the thermosonic images, the location of defective or inhomogeneous regions in the welded thin SUS 304 plates can be detected easily.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 1999

The industrial techniques of ultrasound have been used in the various fields, such as cleaning, medical surgery, emulsification, cell disruption etc. Especially the application of cell disruption was interested in the field of disinfection process in water by ultrasonic irradiation. It has been recognized that the ultrasounds are irradiated in aqueous solution, cavitation bubbles are generated and shock waves of high temperature and pressure are emitted as the bubbles are developed and finally broken, which function as a energy source to promote reaction efficiencies of various kinds of chemical reactions such as disinfection reaction in water. Therefore, this study was performed to apply the ultrasound for the disinfection method of infected drinking raw water and to discuss the limiting factors such as pH, sample volume and reaction temperature influenced on the removal efficiency of E. coli from experimental analysis of the results obtained in bench-scale plant. For the experiments to measure the influence of reaction parameters in the ultrasonic disinfection process, escalated reactivity of aqueous solutions was excellent when pH in aqueous solution was low, and sample volume was small. On the contrary, the reactivity of disinfection became elevated when reaction temperature was high. It was found that the rate constant of disinfection reaction was applied by Chick's law, reaction kinetics of Chick's law was irreversible and pseudo-first order at all the tested conditions.As a conclusion it appeared that the technology using ultrasonic irradiation can be applied to the treatment of disinfection in infected water which are difficult to be treated by conventional methods.